Demons.

Blood drinkers.

Living elements.

Sons of light.

Powerful and dangerous objects.

Egypt had its share of gods and monsters. Then there was the Hebrews and their lore and the Assyrians and Greeks, not to mention the countless tribes that surrounded the kingdom.

There was so much to sift through.

He was doing his best to actively catalog everything he was learning from other peoples and places but even he, despite his thirst for such things, would get a headache. But there was a greater reason for all of it. This knowledge is intended to be passed down through the ages and anyone who crosses these creatures will have some sort of guidance.

To be prepared is greater than swinging blindly with a sword.

Anytime his father and mother were wandering the bazaar with some of the servants, Nebedtka would sneak into his father's belongings in search of the perfect creature.

Easing his sister’s curiosity was one thing but he would be lying if he said he didn’t also want to see something of the other side. To see something of the beings he was researching. That would be a sight.

Thebes is what his father referred to as a “clean place”. If there was any malevolent creature in this city, the ones who were supposed to be there would drive them out. This was a powerful center of spiritual defense. But, as luck would have it, Pawah had a small summoning ritual along his personal things. A small thing he spoke of several times before.

A creature he claims aided him from time to time but the relationship was apparently tenuous.

Nebedtka unfolded the delicate papyrus and studied the incantation and ingredients. According to what he was reading, and with the correct implements, they could summon an elemental. A thing that could be used as a messenger or additional aid in a battle against something naturally opposed to it. Fire against water, for example.

One thing he could not know, however, was how powerful or how big the creature would be. He remembered reading that even demons would fear these things as they had access to power directly linked to the world itself. Elementals were apparently predisposed to protect the world it lived on but that defense would be against anything that felt threatening. And like the earth, that power could grow beyond anything mere demons could summon.

He stood in his and Laini’s bedchamber and stared at the parchment, rubbing the edges between his fingers in thought.

They were finally going to see something. He was both excited and a little frightened, he couldn’t help it.

On another day when their mother and father were out for their walk, Laini and Nebedtka gathered the implements they needed and told the other house servants they, too, would be going for a small walk. Carefully, they both mounted horses and made their way to the outskirts of the city in a place not very many people lived. This portion of the city was dedicated to some of the smaller farms but it was also home to the side of a plateau stretching up. This was a cliff face that gave a spectacular view of Thebes and it was a place the pair knew well. Their story was not entirely untrue, just the reason they were wandering out there.

Taking great care to not be seen by curious eyes, they finally found a nice hiding place and began setting up their ritual.

As Nebedtka worked to write symbols into the ground and placed spell implements around the circle, Laini stood staring at the parchment just as intently as he was before. She would occasionally glare down at the writing: she knew the words but the meaning of these words were eluding her.

But there was something else she was feeling. The past few days she spent concentrating on what her father had said and she felt a pit in her stomach begin to open. 

Something began to slowly infiltrate the back of her mind and, finally, settle into her heart. It was if all sound had vanished, replaced with a far-off humming that became louder with each second. She felt as if she should look up from the papyrus and did so, very slowly.

And there he was.

A ghostly male figure stood with his head raised and eyes on the ground watching Nebedtka. He was stalwart almost like a soldier and would occasionally nod as if he approved of what he was seeing. He suddenly turned his head and he stared at her as if surprised at first but his face softened to a very gentle and welcoming smile. Laini tilted her head before shifting her gaze to her brother to see if he was aware of the man standing not even a few feet from where he was.

But Nebedtka didn’t even look up from his work. She finally looked back at the man only to discover that in the few seconds that she looked away, he had vanished.

Did she see something of what her father had described?

Nebedtka finally stood where he was and carefully looked over his work before wandering to her side.

“Are you ready?” he asked, taking the spell from her. “There is no turning back...you know this…”

She only lifted her head and also gave his handy work a little bit of an inspection before finally nodding.

“I am ready.”